A New Treasure

This first morning of a brand new year, not far into a century which seems to have only begun itself, I awake to find myself happy with the simplicity of what is in front of me now. What a gift.

Blessed with beautiful natural surroundings, I often wonder how I got here, especially considering the likes of where once I dwelled, the strange and dangerous places that my very thinking mind called forth and into being. I can remember other frigid mornings, just like this one, where I was not anywhere near OK, let alone warm and blessed and happy. And this time was within this new century, visible still in the old rear-view mirror, a once-me shivering inside an awful emptiness and loneliness. But that person and those situations are not who nor where I am now, by a long shot. So often do I sit in awe that we can change our lives so drastically with only the seeds of willingness.

A gaze out the windows brings a veritable, living, Norman Rockwell view of planet earth that is a pristine chunk of the Pacific Northwest. A fire warms us inside, the dogs and cats and me, the lake sits still as she ever has, a light mist crawling along her mirror-surface, only light ripples so subtly distorting the reflection of the yawning trees, whose tips are painted with easy strokes of a rising sun.

It is so still and quiet and peaceful here, as I write to you. And as the sun continues to come, the view will change and the mist will disappear and then a new instant will be upon us. We will need to go somewhere and do something, maybe. But today is New Year’s Day, a day that has never before been nor ever will be again. All that is seen will transform into something else, and the now moment will become but a memory, replaced only with another, then another, and on and on.

We have only the moment we are experiencing. Everything we do right now determines not only our state of being, but also helps to bring into the realm of experience what we will know as who we are and what we have chosen as our lives. It is here we can relinquish our victim status and claim the creative essence that some find and live, fully activated, and others choose to let lie dormant, looking for the light with the light. The great news of this now moment is that within each and every being, no matter its current circumstance, is this divine power and ability present. It is only a matter of claiming, invoking and allowing it to lead instead of some smaller estimation of what we are.

This is not a process of denial, but rather one of acceptance. Maybe you are locked up, either literally in a jail, or by a set of conceptions of what you can or cannot do; if we take an honest look, this can be as much of a prison as any other locked set of doors. And so, the first step is our acceptance of where and what is our current circumstance. Really, this process is how we either stay where we are, or grow into something else of which we are co-creators. Our living world is not as physical as it may seem. The ability to change comes from beyond thinking.

We literally live life from the future, projecting out a view of what reality is and then living right into it. We call up events and people to provide evidence that our viewpoint is valid, thereby acknowledging our being right. We all love being right, and we are. No one is more right than another, contrary to popular belief.

We can accept what we have forged in perception, and take a good look at it. On this First Day of the year 2015, we can set resolutions that may fade away and wonder again why they did not “stick.” But we can make a new kind of resolution. We can turn the lens inward and make not resolution, but alter our very core intention of what will lead – and what we are for. Will it be what always has been, to bring us to where we did not wish to be?

Let us replace “I cannot do it, it is too hard, I don’t have enough this or that, I am limited in my resources, I’m too tired, broken, overweight, sad, mad, depressed, I’m fine just the way I am,” with:

Abundance surrounds me. I am an expression of divine love whose supply is limitless. All is possible. The ability to change is real. I am not my thoughts nor my body. The ability of choice is within me now. Every problem that comes my way also comes with a natural solution, and that problem will soon be revealed as a huge gift for me and for others. Each person, place and thing that crosses my path is a divine encounter, bringing with it another piece of the puzzle and a clear message. I am guided by the entire universe and the love that allows all of life to be and to flourish. I am listening.

I am a writer, and this was not always so. I literally began from utter desperation, as a way to escape the insanity of my thinking. A little yet profound trick of human nature is that anything we do for around 30 days can and often does become habit. Some of these habits, obviously, are more desirable than others, and all bring about results. I noticed early on that in writing, there was what I was writing, which was often just my thoughts, but then there was an observer “me” witnessing this writing. Aha! I said. Who is this dude watching me? Over time, I could see that what I thought was in truth only one possible set of options as what I believed myself to be. I had currently called these options “reality,” to which I was a victim. This could be changed; the witness helped, and tremendously. The observer “me” helped to form new intentions and these intentions brought a whole new way of thinking, as if somehow purified from a horrifying basic delusion, and my life began to change. I believe that possible in all human beings is the ever-present ability to change what we believe ourselves to be and instead find and live the inherent Truth. But this did not come from where I had always looked, where the true power was not allowed. Free will, a blessing or a curse? How about you?

May all your wishes be fulfilled.

Available Now!

A Thousand Screaming Monkeys

by Kevin A. Hart

Kevin’s story begins in a treacherous place, a state of mind and body so hideous that he practically invites getting his head blown clean-off by a double-barrel.